The Nouveau Lidded Morning Glory Bowl

Description

The repousse design on the lid of this bowl was originally going to be part of a costume piece for a play set in the 1920's, but the costume piece never was made and the design has sat quietly in my sketchbook, waiting for a chance to live.

Then I made this bowl, and it needed an absolutely amazing lid, and the sketch fell out of my sketchbook and as I watched it glide through the air towards the floor, I knew that the design would be lovely on the lid for my bowl.

So out came the chasing tools, and hours later, a lid that fit snugly. With the lid on, I feel like this bowl is full of copper water with a small bit of morning glory vine fallen onto the surface.

The bowl is about 4" wide at the top and 2 1/2" tall. The base is 3" in diameter.

The bowl was made by forming a half-cone from sheet copper, and soldering it with a lapped seam, then shaping the bowl over raising stakes to its current form. The base was soldered on and trimmed to fit. All seams are done with silver solder.

The lid is made by tracing a design onto sheet copper, and then creating an outline of the design with chasing tools while the copper is kept in place in a pan of pitch. Once the outline is done, the piece is removed, annealed, and then placed back into the pitch upside-down and worked from the backside to create the raised areas. After the repousse is done, then a circle of copper wire fit to the inside rim of the bowl is soldered onto the lid, which keeps the lid in place on the bowl.

Added on Aug 26, 2009